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A single-system account of the relationship between priming, recognition, and fluency.

Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and CognitionPublished 1 January 2008Open access
Christopher J. Berry, David R. Shanks, Richard N. Henson
Citations67
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TL;DR

The authors' simulations suggest that priming effects can be observed in amnesic patients at levels comparable with healthy adults despite impaired or near-chance recognition, and that these results are consistent with a single-system account.

Abstract

A single-system computational model of priming and recognition was applied to studies that have looked at the relationship between priming, recognition, and fluency in continuous identification paradigms. The model was applied to 3 findings that have been interpreted as evidence for a multiple-systems account: (a) priming can occur for items not recognized; (b) the pattern of identification reaction times (RTs) to hits, misses, correct rejections, and false alarms can change as a function of recognition performance; and (c) fluency effects (shorter RTs to words judged old vs. judged new) and priming effects (shorter RTs to old vs. new words) can be observed in amnesic patients at levels comparable with healthy adults despite impaired or near-chance recognition. The authors' simulations suggest, contrary to previous interpretations, that these results are consistent with a single-system account.

Keywords

PsychologyComputer ScienceNeuroscience